The Cost of Freedom

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives: yesterday, December 7th, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

These words, spoken by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt about an event that occurred 67 years ago today, still ring a familiar tone in our collective history. It was on that day that the United States of America entered World War II. But with the number of soliders, sailors and airmen that served in this conflict dwindling, we must not forget the lessons learned and the sacrifices made, lest their deaths be in vain.

More than 2,400 were killed and over half that many wounded on that fateful day, but the losses were nothing compared to what was to come. By the end of World War II, millions had bled and died across the globe so that freedom could prevail.

The world seemed dark and hopeless on that morning 67 years ago, but through sacrifice and determination, hope sprang anew. Remember today the sacrifices that a generation made so that we could be free. May we be always respectful and never take for granted a gift as precious as this.

Pictures from top to bottom: The USS West Virginia is hit by a torpedo in one of the opening explosions of the attack, USS Shaw exploding after her magazine was penetrated by a Japanese bomb, the remains of the great battleship USS Arizona and the USS Arizona memorial as it stands today.